Since the first serve of the season, the Morgan County volleyball team hasn’t come across many opponents that have given it trouble, and that trend continued last Tuesday night.
The Spike Dogs (34-6, 10-0) hosted the Wesleyan Wolves for an Elite 8 matchup in the Class 3A state tournament, and it was action-packed from the start.
Morgan County head coach Kat Goodwin was proud of the way her team competed throughout and acknowledged how good of an opponent they just beat after the match.
“They were playing exactly how you want to see a team play at this caliber. I mean, that was a good team, and they were tough,” Goodwin said. “They had some good hitters and good blockers, and they were connecting. Everything we’ve been working on prepared us for that, and we were just hitting the ball really well.”
Wesleyan actually jumped out to a quick lead in the first set, and Goodwin called a timeout to settle things down trailing 12-7. The sideline discussion with her team seemed to do the trick, and the Spike Dogs would tie it up at 13-13 before the Wolves’ coach was forced to take a timeout of his own.
A close back-and-forth first set was led by Wesleyan at the 21-20 mark, but the Spike Dogs were able to score five unanswered and seemingly stole the first set from the Wolves.
In the second set, Morgan County proved to be too much for Wesleyan as the Spike Dogs went on to win that set 25-13. The ball seemed to be coming off Morgan's players’ hands stronger than before, and Wesleyan’s defense had a tough time returning.
With only one more set needed to advance to the Final Four, the Spike Dogs locked in. It was the closest set of the three and came down to the wire.
Toward the end of what would be the final set, the game was tied at 24-24 after the net judge awarded the Wolves with a point because of a seemingly illegal hit by the Spike Dogs. Goodwin called a timeout to talk with a couple of the referees and the Wesleyan coach, and after about five minutes, the Wolves were stripped of that point to make it 24-23 once more.
The final point came on a little finesse hit over the net from Presley Hill which earned the Spike Dogs a Final Four berth.
When it was all said and done, Goodwin expected her team to come out and play to that high level and expect the same level of play going forward.
“I said pretty early on in the season that I would put up my team against any 3A team in the state and feel confident that we can come out on top,” Goodwin said. “I haven’t wavered from that, so yeah, we feel pretty confident about our team heading forward.”
Looking ahead, the Spike Dogs will need to keep that same confidence heading into this weekend. Morgan County’s Final Four matchup will be played against Sandy Creek this Saturday. The Spike Dogs played the Patriots earlier this season and won both sets.
The Spike Dogs made it to the Elite 8 last year but fell to Cherokee Bluff.